To me, it’s a waste of time to stay in a band that is not willing to acknowledge the very things that have obstructed their view. Now that the new year has arrived, it’s the perfect time to step out and take an objective look at what can be done to take your band up a couple notches. I see a lot of live bands. What I tend to notice, is that many of them have exactly the same issues or similar ones that prevent them from reaching their potent...

So let’s turn back to the 1970’s for the second part of this series. For those of you who haven’t read Part 1, my goal is to introduce more obscure pop/rock ballads from the 70’s and 80’s that got lost over time, but are great songs! Additionally, I’d love for a band or artist to take one of these songs either in Part 1 or 2, and make them their own. Think of your genre, and how you can change the arrangement, instrumentation and over...

One thing I loved about the 1970’s and 80’s was the album format. This was the age of AOR or what used to be known as Album Oriented Rock. Used to be, that there was a large legion of music fans that would buy albums, as opposed to merely singles, which in that time were released on 45 RPM’s. There were some great rock and pop ballads written throughout these two decades. My aim is to capture not only some of the best, but more important...

Your live show is the single most effective way to build your fanbase. So much emphasis these days tends to be geared around online promotion, which is all good - however this doesn’t serve to create that personal connection with your fans which can only be fully realized when they actually see you in person. But is your live show up to snuff? I specialize in analyzing and troubleshooting live shows, to help bands maximize their efforts in g...

I often get asked to critique bands and sound. Admittingly, this is probably one of my least favorite requests; not because I can’t do it, but rather how delicate this matter is. As musicians (and I include myself), we all come off as tough - wrapping the  layers of skin around our offense detectors to ward off any unpleasant discourse.  As a result, we have the propensity (yes, our word of the day is propensity-lol) to lose objectivity an...